“While He was still speaking, a crowd arrived, led by the man called Judas, one of the Twelve. He approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”(Luke 22:47-48).
On the fourth of February 2019, when Pope Francis visited the United Arab Emirates, the Pontiff and the grand imam of al-Azhar signed a historic declaration of fraternity, calling for peace between nations, religions and races, in front of a global audience of religious leaders from Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other faiths. Pope Francis, the head of the world’s Catholics, and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Sunni Islam’s prestigious seat of learning, arrived at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi hand-in-hand in a symbol of interfaith brotherhood. Since that time the Pope has continuously and somewhat vigorously pursued an ongoing relationship between Islam and Roman Catholicism.
I have just watched a video presentation of a message given by Mike Gendron, a born again Bible believer who was saved out of Roman Catholicism many years ago and who has devoted his life to witnessing to Roman Catholics to bring them into Biblical salvation which is not taught in Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism is “another gospel.” His message was titled “The Convergence of Islam & Roman Catholicism.” In his message he identified 10 common bonds between Roman Catholicism and Islam. They are the following…
1. Both deny the supreme authority of scripture. 2. Both embrace another Jesus and not the one revealed in scripture. 3. Both have a works based righteousness and salvation. 4. Both honour Mary above all women. 5. Both seek messages from apparitions. 6. Both have human mediators. 7. Both are Anti-Semitic and anti-born again Bible believers. 8. Both seek world domination. 9. Both use prayer beads to avoid punishments. 10. Both take pilgrimages to obtain favour from God. (See the link to the video below)
Now we are told in the Book of Revelation about Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes, and of the Abominations of the Earth (Revelation 17:5). In Revelation Chapters 17 and 18 we are given a description of the character of Mystery Babylon and its destruction as well. For many centuries within Protestantism it has been believed that the Babylon described in these two chapters in the Book of Revelation refer to the Roman Catholic Church. However when we look at Babylon in the Bible we need to see that Babylon includes the Roman Catholic Church but has a wider application. The Roman Catholic Church is a part of, but not the whole of Mystery Babylon the mother of Prostitutes.
The Babylon of Nimrod in the Book of Genesis was the original source of all false religions we have seen down through the centuries and that exist today. The Tower of Babel was a Ziggurat, a common form of tower in Nimrod’s time. Nimrod was the first major type of the man of sin also called the Antichrist and Nimrod sought to build an empire that would confront God. The Tower of Babel was his attempt to do this. It is believed that at the top of the tower was an occult symbol which in ancient times was seen as a portal or door through which humans could contact entities in the unseen spirit realm which of course is the domain of Satan and his fallen spirit beings. (Ephesians 2:2). We know from the Word of God that all idol worship is the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17).
After the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine who ‘Christianised’ the Roman Empire, pagan symbols and rituals and false unbiblical doctrines of demons such as enforced celibacy were introduced into the realm of wider Christendom and re-packaged as ‘Christian’ and spread through many nations of the world. The fact that Mystery Babylon is described as the Mother of Prostitutes is because it gave birth to all false religions including the main male and female deity personified in Nimrod and his wife Semiramis who was also his mother. The two main deities were passed on down through the Ancient empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome and the only difference was that their names were changed in each successive empire.
Today these two ‘deities’ (principalities) have re-surfaced in Islam with its crescent moon and star. Ancient Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar was a dazzling, rich, opulent, sensual, multi-religious, hedonistic, materialistic and entertainment orientated empire. The dark spiritual nature of this empire is described in both Testaments. Whether it is Islam, Roman Catholicism, ecumenism, interfaith or the pleasures, pursuits, lifestyles and culture of our modern secular world, it is all Babylon and doomed for destruction when the Lord Jesus comes back. For the first century believers the pagan Roman Empire was seen as Babylon (1 Peter 5:13).
Now in Bible prophecy we are told that Babylon is yet to fall and the description of its fall is found in the Old Testament (Isaiah 21:9) (Jeremiah 51:7-9) and in the New Testament (Revelation 14:8) (Revelation 18:2-3). Historically the ancient city of Babylon located on the River Euphrates was never destroyed but atrophied over time. Alexander the Great made his headquarters there for some time and was overwhelmed with the massive structures that remained. The destruction of Babylon is still to happen in the future but its location will be in a different place geographically. We are told that this ‘prostitute’ is a literal city in a desert and that its destruction is heard at the Red Sea (Revelation 17:3) (Jeremiah 49:21).
Now the city of Rome is not located in a desert or by the Sea. New York is located by the sea but not in a desert. The city that is in a desert and sits by the Red Sea today is the city of Mecca, the home of the Kaaba and the black stone venerated by Muslims around the world. Rising above it and overlooking the Kaaba is the huge clock tower with a crescent moon at the top of the spire. They call it Mt Babel, after the Tower of Babel. The crescent moon represents Allah the Arabic Mesopotamian moon-god of war. In fact this deity was around in the time of Gideon. We read in the Book of Judges Chapter 8 that after Gideon had defeated Midian that he removed the crescent amulets from around the necks of the camels belonging to the Midianites (Judges 8:21 NASB).
The Bible nowhere puts the last city of Babylon in Europe or America but in the Middle-East. This Last Days city of Babylon trades by the sea (Revelation 17:1-2, 15). This city is described as a wicked woman in the Book of Zechariah (Zechariah 5:5-11). This is the woman who rides the beast empire and who is destroyed by fire that comes from the beast empire of the Antichrist and that at God’s command (Revelation 17:16-18). The sea merchants stand afar off when they see this city burning more than likely by missile strikes or by a nuclear detonation causing a fallout (Revelation 18:9-24). However, we are also told in God’s Word that the underground oil reserves in Saudi Arabia will burn out of control making human habitation in that geographical region not possible and that this judgment will occur because of how Babylon has treated God’s people Israel (Isaiah 34:8-10). It may well be that we will also see the Vatican hit by a missile strike!
You see the fundamental ‘die-hard’ Jihad minded Muslims such as Iran hate the Saudis and they see Mecca as the prostitute of Islam because of its compromise with the western non-Islamic nations. Iran wants to destroy Mecca and the UAE and other Arab nations located on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula because of their associations with western nations and culture. Already we see the proxy war being fought by Iran against the Saudis using the Houthi rebels in Yemen. In the Old Testament there is a prophetic reference to the future fall of the city of Babylon described as happening in the desert by the Sea at the hands of Elam (Iran) and Media (the Kurds today) (Isaiah 21:1-9).
In the Word of God you have the city of Babylon built by Nimrod, resurrected in the time of King Nebuchadnezzar and was located on the Euphrates River in the geographical region of modern day Iraq. Historically the city of Babylon itself was never destroyed and atrophied over time. Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it but was not successful. Then you have the wider application of Babylon seen in all religions and in the culture and lifestyles of all of the ancient nations and empires of the world down to the present time, where we see it not only in secular society in the modern world, but also in many of the traditions, ceremonies and religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
After watching this video presentation by Mike Gendron I realised that Mystery Babylon applies to both Islam and the Roman Catholic Church combined, both religious empires but also engrafted into secular society. Both are not only religions but are also socio-economic systems of government that have military power. Since its inception the Roman Catholic Church also had its armies and commercial trade and its opulence and wealth. So we have three perspectives of Babylon culture clearly seen in the secular non-religious world, in Islam and in Roman Catholicism. All three together are Babylon. Having said this, the end-time Babylon is also a city in a desert by the sea whose destruction is heard at the Red Sea.
Babylon is not only at work in the secular world and in Islam and all false religions but also at work within wider Christendom. Whether it is Ecumenism, Interfaith, secular marketing strategies for church growth, mega worship with its mesmerising euphoric rock music and with musicians and singers treated like rock stars and you have Kingdom Dominion, hyper faith prosperity and many so called ‘evangelicals’ moving away from the absolute authority of God’s Word, it is all Babylon! As for denominational structures these are also going to Babylon. While there are individual Churches within the Protestant and evangelical denominational structured system that are faithful to the Bible, many are no longer teaching the whole counsel of God but deciding which parts to teach and what parts to avoid.
The time has come when God is speaking to His people to flee Babylon because its destruction is coming! Hear what the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah; “Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves” (Jeremiah 51:6). The apostle john reiterates this call from God in the Book of revelation; “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’ For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong” (Revelation 18:4-8).
This applies to the secular and religious world, it applies to Islam and to Roman Catholicism and to all those ‘protestant’ and hyper charismatic Churches that seek to join with Roman Catholicism. What are born again, blood washed, blood redeemed, Spirit filled New Covenant believers to do? Peter the apostle writes; “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Peter 3:10-14).
Today the Lord is regrouping His people and all over the world New Covenant Bible believers are meeting in small groups because of the apostasy within mainline denominational structured Christendom with its ecumenical and interfaith associations. The time is rapidly approaching when small groups, that hold to the teaching and authority of the Bible as God’s Word, who are seeking daily to live godly lives that please God, that are open to the genuine gifts of the Spirit and who evangelise and disciple the unsaved, will be the face of the true Body of the Messiah when He returns to earth.
Indeed that prophecy is being fulfilled which says; “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the one to whom it belongs comes; and unto Him (the Messiah our Lord Jesus) shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10). Ultimately as believers we will have to find a fellowship of other New Covenant Bible believers and more than likely have to meet in home groups or where we can because of the restrictions by western governments who will only approve of State Approved Churches. I believe this is where the faithful Body of the Messiah is headed in post western democracies.
It will be a faithful Bible believing remnant that will escape with their lives and who have heard and acted upon the Word of God and taking to heart what He has said; “Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.” As Peter writes; “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.”
Notice he mentions we are to be anticipate a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness prevails. We are to be exercising due diligence in spiritual matters and be found by God, when our Lord Jesus comes back, to be in peace, spotless and blameless in His sight. Of course it is only the blessed Holy Spirit that can reproduce these spiritual qualities in us as we walk by faith moment by moment drawing on the power of the indestructible life of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. He is life itself for every New Covenant Bible believer! As it is written; “He is our life!” As Paul writes; “When the Messiah, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).
‘Babylon’ is now well ensconced within wider Christendom today! Years ago we saw Pope John Paul kissing a copy of the Quran and in 2019, when we saw Pope Francis the head of the Roman Catholic Church kissing the cheek of Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb the head of Sunni Islam’s seat of learning, we saw once again the Son of man betrayed with a kiss!
Link: https://youtu.be/AqAdzSfwEg4
